Coca-Cola's Thailand unit has launched the company's first herbal drink.

Habu mixes four herbs - rosella, licorice, monk's fruit and cogongrass - and is designed to suit Thailand's tropical climate, Coca-Cola Thailand said this week. The unit will support the launch with a THB160m (US$5.1m) marketing campaign to roll out over the rest of the year.

Coca-Cola said Habu is “inspired by Thai herbal drink culture” and is specifically for Thai consumers.

The Coca-Cola system in Thailand has launched Habu™, an all-natural herbal blended refreshment inspired by Thai culture and conceptualized specifically for Thai consumers

Habu™ features a wise mix of four key herbs – Rosella, Licorice, Luo Han Guo, and Cogon Grass – which making it a truly great tasting beverage choice for Thailand’s hot, tropical climate

Coca-Cola has invested 160 million baht into a one year integrated marketing campaign to launch Habu - ‘Habu Cooling’ campaign features premier Thai celebrities Pope and Ko Tee as its brand ambassadors

BANGKOK, 13 August 2013 – The Coca-Cola system in Thailand today announced the highly anticipated launch of its first herbal drink Habu™ for the Thai market. The new ready-to-drink herbal-blended beverage, Habu, is a combination of four cooling ingredients; Rosella, Licorice,

Luo Han Guo, and Cogan Grass. Thailand is the first country to unveil this new beverage. The launch is backed by a 160-million baht one year launch campaign, ‘Habu Cooling’, creating engaging online and offline activities as well as introducing brand ambassadors, Pope and Ko Tee to build brand awareness and brand recognition. To drive high volume of sale, Habu is going to roll-out a massive nationwide sampling program which targets to reach 1 million bottles of sampling within this year.

Mr. Diggy Dey, Business Development Director at Coca-Cola Thailand, said, “Habu is the culmination of years of research and development, including extensive studies of Thai consumer behavior, beverage traditions, tastes and direct consumer engagement to understand what Thais want in an herbal drink. In Habu, Coca-Cola is offering consumers a completely unique, ready-to-drink herbal-blended beverage made of the best quality, natural ingredients. Its wise mix of four key herbs - Rosella, Luo Han Guo, Licorice and Cogon Grass - creates a great tasting beverage that combines modern tastes with traditional herbal properties. Inspired by Thai herbal drink culture and conceptualized specifically for Thai consumers, Habu’s unique combination of cooling ingredients is perfect for soothing consumers looking for a reprieve from Thailand’s heat and the stresses of busy, modern lifestyles.”

“From our research, herbal drinks, including herbal-fused and tea-based drinks, are in the top three most popular drinks – alongside bottled water and sparkling beverages – in food stores, traditional trade and convenience stores,” he added.

“After extensive product research and development at one of The Coca-Cola Company’s largest R&D facilities in the world, Habu’s launch is set to offer a new ready-to-drink herbal blended beverage to Thai consumers nationwide and truly modernize and redefine the herbal drink category for Thailand,” Mr. Dey said. “And now we have in Habu a modern, balanced and great tasting everyday drink that stays loyal to its traditional roots.”

Mr. Charnvit Charindhorn, Senior Vice President - Marketing, ThaiNamthip Limited, said, “From our estimation, the market value of ready-to-drink herbal beverages is more than 21 billion baht and has average annual growth rate of 25 per cent for the past three years. It’s this clear market opportunity that Coca-Cola developed Habu to meet the growing refreshment needs of consumers and to complement our leading range of world-class brands available in Thailand.”

“Habu will be produced by our system’s industry-leading, high-tech production capacity. As announced earlier this year, we have invested four billion baht into our nationwide production facilities for all of our beverage categories including the production of our new brand Habu,” he said.

“The Coca-Cola system in Thailand's strong portfolio of Still beverages, such as Minute Maid Splash, Minute Maid Pulpy, Minute Maid Nutriboost and Namthip, contribute around 20 per cent of volume of total Coca-Cola’s portfolio and has been growing year on year for the past three years,” said Mr. Charnvit. “We hope our first herbal drink brand, Habu, will provide more choice to our customers and consumers as well as strengthen our Still beverage portfolio. As Thailand’s leading beverage company, we don’t take lightly the responsibility we have in bringing our customers the best, great tasting drinks.”

“When we develop an entirely new beverage, we take all the steps necessary to ensure it will be a market leader, a category winner and that it will add something unique to our world-class beverage portfolio. We are confident Habu’s signature blend of four fine herbs and great cooling taste will be a hit with our consumers,” he added.

The Coca-Cola system Thailand has invested approximately 160 million baht into Habu’s one year launch campaign, 'Habu Cooling', a unique and fully integrated marketing communications campaign featuring premier Thai celebrities Pope (Tanawat Wattanaputi) and Ko Tee as its brand ambassadors in its new television commercial titled ‘Men in Haaa’.

In the first year, the campaign will focus on three key components: 1) building brand awareness 2) building brand recognition and 3) maximizing product trials all across Thailand, targeting young adults. The company plans to build awareness of Habu through the release of TVCs, radio and cinema advertising that aims to appeal to young adults, in-store promotions, OOH signage and interactive social media engagement such as online activity on Habu’s Facebook fanpage at www.facebook.com/habucooling.

Massive, nationwide sampling also begins today, targeting one million consumers in the first year both in-store and on-the-street.

Habu’s branding and design story

Inspired by years of herbal drink traditions, Habu fits easily into the broader herbal drink family, but both the brand and the beverage are a breath of fresh air to the category. And naturally, coming from Coca-Cola, Habu is set to stand out in terms of taste, refreshment and is bst enjoyed every day, on any occasion.

The name Habu was created because it is memorable, easy-to-pronounce, is identifiably Asian and has phonetic similarities to the English word, “herbal”. The product’s label and packaging are

Coca-Cola’s modern interpretation of the beautiful clay containers traditionally used to brew herbal drinks. The label’s colors and design elements are based on the four key ingredients – the natural herbs used to make the drink – while the central splash motif conjures a sense of natural refreshment and excitement.

“After careful consumer-validated branding development, the consensus was that Habu’s look is modern and natural, cooling and stylish. Customers will know they’re about to enjoy a drink that will quench their thirst, and refresh their coolness,” said Mr. Dey.

Habu is available nationwide in 250 ml non-returnable glass bottles priced at 10 baht at food stores and restaurants, and in 280 ml PET bottles priced at 12 baht at other channels.